The river beckons; girls start 340-mile paddle on the Missouri

By Tom Held of the Journal Sentinel

Published on: 8/4/2009

A thunderstorm doused a bit of the giddiness Hannah Grow and Marissa Weber carried with them to the Missouri River 340 start this morning, and delayed the launch of their three-day journey to St. Charles, Mo., by about 90 minutes.

The silliness was to be expected from girls, just 14 and 12 respectively, even while they take on a challenge that would test paddlers two and three times their age. The MR 340 is the longest non-stop paddling race in the country and Grow and Weber are by far the youngest to try to finish it within the 88-hour time limit.

In fact, only two female tandem teams have met the challenge in the race's first three years.

"I think the waiting until 9:30 this morning kind of calmed them down."

The girls' game plan has them averaging about 5 mph down the Missouri, including limited stops for sleep over the next three days. The river current moves about 3 mph, so keeping pace while they're paddling is relatively easy.

"It's a matter of how much you can endure and how long can you sit in the boat and keep it moving," said Scott Mansker, who created the Missouri 340 in 2006.

Before leaving for the race, Hannah Grow laid out the team strategy: "The first day is going to go by quick and we're paddling through Tuesday night, that adrenaline rush will help and everybody is going to be close together.

"Day two is going to feel sort of long. By late Wednesday, I think that's when it's goign to be 'why am I going doing this.' Thursday, I think it will be 'I only have one more day, I can finish.' And Friday, we're going to finish."